Institute for Biblical & Scientific Studies

News:
March 8, 2005

Note: Due to the archiving policies of the various news Websites some
links on this page may no longer be valid. All links will take you away
from the IBSS Site - use your browser's "back" button to return
to this page.

Religion in the News

Global Suspense
The trick of faith is to believe in advance what will only make sense in
reverse. By Philip Yancey.

Islam's Culture
War
Author says Muslims are troubled by our morals more than our politics. Reviewed
by J. Dudley Woodberry.

House
okays job training bill with faith provision
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved legislation on job
training, despite Democratic objections to a provision that would allow
faith-based programs to use religion as a hiring criterion (Reuters).

Pastor
visits BTK suspect in jail
On the same day he was fired from his job, the suspect in the BTK serial
killings got assurances he will continue to be a member the church where
he is a leader (Associated Press).

Welcome to Doomsday
Fundamentalists want to destroy the earth (Bill Moyers, New York Review
of Books).

Science in the News

Archaeology/Anthropology

Vatican
archaeologist
Paul really is buried where the church said he is Giorgio Filippi, a archeology
specialist with the Vatican Museums, says a sarcophagus containing the remains
of the apostle Paul has been discovered in the basilica of San Paolo Fuori
le Mura (St. Paul Outside the Walls).

Tut
Not Murdered Violently, Scans Show
CT scans of King Tutankhamun found no physical evidence of murder. But they
did reveal unusual features, including a broken leg that may have helped
kill him.

'Man
The Hunter' Theory Is Debunked In New Book (February 26, 2005)
In a new book, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis goes
against the prevailing view and argues that primates, including early humans,
evolved not as hunters but as prey of many predators, including wild dogs
and cats, hyenas, eagles and crocodiles.

Black Holes
In A Radar Trap Garching, Germany (SPX) Feb 25, 2005
European astronomers succeeded for the first time to confirm the signatures
predicted near Black Holes by Albert Einstein's theory of Relativity in
the light of the cosmic X-ray background.

In
The Stars: Starmaking's Helping Hand Washington (UPI) Mar 03, 2005
Science has come a long way since the days of the clockwork universe, when
the stars of the night sky remained fixed in their positions and the objects
the Greeks called planets, or "wanderers," followed precise and
simple paths across the heavens.

Launch site
secured for space tourists.
The race to launch the first commercial passenger spacecraft is gaining
pace as one of the Ansari X Prize competitors, AERA Corporation, signed
an agreement with the US Air Force on Monday to use the launch services
at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is the first space tourism company to do
so and claims it may be ready to offer tourist flights as early as 2006.

Biology

HIV
Protein's Protean Prowess Revealed
HIV is a consummate trickster. Availed of a human body, it can thrive for
years on end, foiling the immune system's attempts to squelch it. All the
while, it continues to infect host cells. Scientists have recognized for
some time that a single protein on the virus's outer membrane known as gp120
is responsible for much of this chicanery. New research is yielding fresh
insights into how the protein operates.

Paste
for Teeth Repairs Cavities: March 1, 2005
A team of Japanese dentists has invented a paste of synthetic enamel that
seamlessly heals small cavities, according to a paper in the latest journal
Nature.

Bryan
Appleyard meets Richard Dawkins
The fault is not in our genes but in our minds. Here are two recent news
stories: weve found the genes that make people believe in God and
that make women unfaithful. At a stroke, scientists have scuppered religion
and taken the moral sting out of infidelity. If you think you have any of
these genes, go to your doctor at once and get them removed.

Geologists
Discover Clockwork Motion By Ocean Floor Microplates Durham NC (SPX)
Feb 24, 2005
A team of geologists from Duke University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution has discovered a grinding, coordinated ballet of crustal "microplates"
unfolding below the equatorial east Pacific Ocean within a construction
zone for new seafloor.

Physics

Moonbeams Shine
On Einstein, Galileo And Newton Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 07, 2005
Thirty-five years after Moon-walking astronauts placed special reflectors
on the lunar surface, scientists have used these devices to test Albert
Einstein's general theory of relativity to unprecedented accuracy.

Scientists Work
To Detect Mysterious Neutrinos Livermore CA (SPX) Mar 07, 2005
Livermore scientists are working to solve a 50-year-old question: Can neutrinos
 a particle that is relatively massless, has no electric charge yet
is fundamental to the make-up of the universe  transform from one
type to another?

Technology

Tiny particles
Could Solve Billion-Dollar Problem Houston TX (SPX) Feb 24, 2005
New research from Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental
Nanotechnology finds that nanoparticles of gold and palladium are the most
effective catalysts yet identified for remediation of one of the nation's
most pervasive and troublesome groundwater pollutants, trichloroethene or
TCE.

Zoology

Hydrogen
And Methane Sustain Unusual Life At Sea Floor's 'Lost City'
The hydrothermal vents at the ocean bottom were miles from any location
scientists could have imagined. One massive seafloor vent was 18 stories
tall. All were creamy white and gray, suggesting a very different composition
than the hydrothermal vent systems that have been studied since the 1970s.